Enhancing Coaching Confidence with Solution-Focused Therapy Techniques
No one starts out as a confident coach.
It’s our job as coaches to always be learning, growing and finding new ways to enhance our skills which in turn will enhance our coaching confidence.
Some of my favourite techniques for growing your confidence as a coach comes from Solution-focused Therapy.
Here’s why…
Solution Focused Therapy was a precursor to Life Coaching.
At least in my life.
Struggling with negative thoughts? Discover practical tips and exercises in my free “Beginner’s Guide to Improving Your Mindset.” Click here to get your copy and begin your journey to a better you!
It became known in the therapy community in the late 1970s and early 1980s before I even trained as a psychotherapist.
It was developed at the Brief Family Therapy Center in Milwaukee, USA, by Steve de Shazer, Insoo Kim Berg, and their colleagues.
But listen to this and tell me if it reminds you of coaching?
“Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT) is a therapeutic approach that emphasizes solutions rather than problems, focusing on what clients want to achieve rather than the barriers they face.”
This method is unique in its forward-looking, goal-oriented nature, making it distinctly practical and brief compared to more traditional, problem-focused psychotherapies.
Do you see the similarities to coaching?
“Solution focused, goal oriented, practical and brief.”
This is in direct contrast to what I had learned in my education and Master’s program in counselling.
I had the pleasure of doing a course with Insoo Kim Berg in the early 1990’s. And it really spoke to me.
I had not heard about coaching yet. But I just loved her solution-focused approach because I myself had been in therapy for so many years of my life, and it really hadn’t given me the relief I was looking for.
Yes, I did become very aware of my issues. I was just not that good at moving out of them!
I adopted a lot of the Solution-Focused Therapy techniques in my psychotherapy practice.
And that is why I had a client hand me an article about Life Coaching in 1997 and say “Did you know, this is what you do?”
I didn’t know.
I hadn’t heard of life coaching as a profession. And I was thrilled about it. It was certainly my calling more than psychotherapy.
And that’s how I jumped into coaching.
But, I want you to know that I still use many of the techniques I learned back in the early 90’s from SFT because they are fabulous.
They really work to help my clients move forward. And more to the point, they help us to enhance our coaching confidence as we see our clients move forward in their lives.
I’m going to talk about three Solution-Focused Therapy Techniques in this blog in hopes that as you try them out, you too can enhance your coaching confidence.
3 Solution-Focused Therapy Techniques That Will Enhance Your Coaching Confidence.
The Miracle Question
The Miracle Question is my favourite.
It’s a little like visioning or creating an ideal day, but it comes from a different perspective that is really transformative.
We invite our client to imagine a world where a miracle has happened overnight, a miracle that has solved their main concerns or problems.
Your client doesn’t have to believe in miracles to benefit from this because what it is doing is lifting them out of the problem and directly into the solution without all the mental blocks they have been encountering.
The Miracle has removed the blocks.
But the fun thing is, we tell our client that when they wake up, a miracle has happened, but they don’t know that.
They just wake up to a world where they don’t have that big problem that’s been haunting them.
It’s a creative way to shift focus from current problems to potential solutions
And so we ask:
“Suppose tonight, while you sleep, a miracle occurs. When you awake, what will you see yourself doing, thinking, or feeling that will tell you a miracle has happened?”
This question encourages clients to detail the changes they’d notice, setting the stage for a clear vision of their desired future.
But there is something about framing it as a miracle that seems to free the client from “thinking” and instead finds the joy in imagining.
It helps them step out of their current mindset and explore possibilities without the constraints of their perceived barriers.
We continue to guide them on this exploration by asking them to consider changes in their behavior, interactions, thoughts, and feelings.
This process helps clients articulate specific goals and desires that they might not have recognized before.
The benefits of the Miracle Question are substantial.
Get Your Free Mindset Makeover! Feeling stuck in a cycle of self-doubt and negativity? My “Beginner’s Guide to Improving Your Mindset” is packed with simple, effective strategies to help you shift your perspective. Sign up now to download your free guide!
Firstly, it propels clients towards a solution-focused mindset, steering the dialogue away from problems and towards solutions.
This often sparks creative thinking and opens up new possibilities for action. Clients gain a clearer understanding of what they truly want, which can be a powerful motivator.
Furthermore, this question can boost hope and optimism, which are crucial for clients feeling stuck in negative situations.
By visualizing a positive and problem-free existence, clients often feel more empowered to initiate change and take proactive steps towards their goals.
Overall, the Miracle Question can lead to remarkable breakthroughs in your coaching sessions.
It not only helps clients define and refine their goals but also enhances their self-efficacy and confidence, fostering a belief that change is possible and within reach.
This tool can be particularly effective in helping clients overcome inertia, providing them with a clearer path forward and a renewed sense of purpose.
Don’t you just love it?
I do.
It has gotten me out of some tight spots where my client either doesn’t know what they want or is too caught up in all the problems and why they can’t have something.
Try it. And let me know how it goes.
The Strengths-Based Approach
The Strengths-Based Approach is a core aspect of Solution-Focused Therapy (SFT) that shifts the traditional focus from what’s going wrong to what’s going right.
Did you not learn that in your coaching training? If not, take heart. Here is how it works.
This technique encourages clients to recognize and build upon their existing strengths and past successes instead of fixating on their deficiencies or areas of weakness.
The premise is simple but powerful: everyone has inherent strengths and resources that can be tapped into to facilitate change and improvement.
To effectively use this approach in coaching, begin by helping clients identify their strengths.
This can be done through direct conversation, reflective exercises, or specific questions that prompt clients to recall times when they felt successful or were able to overcome challenges.
Examples of such questions might include:
“Can you tell me about a time when you felt particularly proud of an achievement?”
“What personal strengths have helped you in difficult times in the past?”
My favourite way to use this is to stop the conversation when it’s too much about what they can’t do, and instead, ask the client about successes from the past.
I do this for myself all the time. For example, while I have been learning about online business and getting overwhelmed and doubting, I remind myself of how, as a high school drop out, I went to university in my thirties and graduated seven years later with a Graduate Degree in Counselling Psychology. I think about how I did that. What were my strengths, what were my strategies, how great did I feel as I accomplished things year by year.
Believe me, reminding myself of this monumental task gives me a ton on confidence and hope.
Hey, maybe try this on yourself too before you try it with your clients. You’ll love it. It really boosts confidence in your abilities.
The benefits of a Strengths-Based Approach are many. For one, it instills a positive mindset that is essential for personal growth.
- When clients focus on their strengths, they are more likely to feel competent and motivated.
- This positivity can lead to increased resilience, as clients are reminded of their capacity to navigate challenges using their own resources.
- Additionally, this approach aligns with the principles of positive psychology, which emphasizes the cultivation of positive feelings, behaviors, and thoughts as a pathway to improved well-being.
Moreover, by focusing on strengths, coaches can help clients achieve a sense of empowerment.
This sense of empowerment encourages clients to take active steps towards their goals, leveraging their strengths in practical and often creative ways.
The Strengths-Based Approach not only supports clients in overcoming immediate challenges but also aids in the long-term development of self-efficacy and personal mastery.
This technique, therefore, is particularly beneficial in coaching, where the ultimate aim is to foster independence and sustained personal growth.
Scaling Questions
Scaling questions involve asking clients to rate their progress or confidence on a scale, helping both you and your client gauge where they are and what needs to be done to move forward.
You simply ask your client to rate an aspect of their experience on a numerical scale, typically from 0 to 10, where 0 might represent the worst or least effective scenario, and 10 represents the best or most effective.
I use this all the time. Yes, I mean that. ALL THE TIME
To use scaling questions effectively, you would start by identifying a specific area to focus on, such as client confidence, satisfaction with progress, or intensity of a particular feeling.
For example, you could ask, “On a scale from 0 to 10, with 10 being that you feel completely confident and 0 being not confident at all, where would you rate your confidence in handling challenges at work?”
After the client provides a rating, you can delve deeper by asking follow-up questions such as, “What makes it a [client’s number] and not zero?” or “What needs to happen for you to move from a [client’s number] to a [higher number]?”
I just love this because it is so intuitive on the client’s part.
Don’t let them spend too much time trying to sort out the “perfect” number.
Help them along if they are thinking too hard. It doesn’t much matter what the number is exactly, more about the conversation and questions after.
There are lots of benefits of this technique.
Firstly, they provide a clear, simple way for clients to articulate complex feelings or experiences, making abstract concepts more tangible and easier to discuss. This can help clients and coaches pinpoint where exactly the client is in their journey and identify specific areas that need attention.
Additionally, scaling questions promote a sense of perspective and progress. By periodically revisiting these scales, clients can visually and numerically see improvements over time, which can be incredibly motivating and validating.
It also helps clients to break down their goals into smaller, more manageable steps, as moving even one point on the scale can be framed as a significant achievement.
I check in with my clients every three months to see where they are in their Wheel of Life or Values numbers. It’s very effective.
Overall, scaling questions are an empowering SFT technique that aids in goal setting, monitoring progress, and enhancing the client’s self-awareness and motivation.
They encourage a proactive approach to personal development and problem-solving, where the client can clearly see the path forward and gauge their own growth along the way.
Like I said earlier, I use this all the time and I love it. And so do my clients. That helps with my confidence too.
In Closing…
Phew…that’s a lot isn’t it?
I hope you really ponder these amazing Solution-focused Therapy techniques and try them out with your clients. I know you’ll see some great results and in turn, this will enhance your coaching confidence.
If you need more help with this, let me know. You can book a Discovery Call with me and see if working together would be a great next step for you.
Here’s the link. Book A 20-Minute Discovery Call with Mentor Coach Lisa Garber